


Ars Arcanum

by ShadowHeart405



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Post KH III, Tarot, The Journey of the Soul, spiritual journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29701095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHeart405/pseuds/ShadowHeart405
Summary: To save Kairi, Sora had to unmake himself. This is the price one pays when they travel between the realms of life and death. However, the Universe rewards acts of selflessness and is willing to give Sora a chance to return as something greater, but only if he can piece himself back together again…
Kudos: 4





	1. 0 - The Fool

_ “After all… to die would be an awfully big adventure.” - Peter Pan  _

The decision had been easy. 

He never asked about the dangers whenever his friends were in trouble, he only asked what he could do to help. No cost to himself was too great, he had paid dearly a hundred times over. 

And if you asked him if he would do it all again? 

He would smile and gladly say yes. 

His last conscious thought, sitting on the Papou tree with Kairi, had been how happy he was that she was safe and that all of his friends were together in one place. His sacrifices had meant something and everything was going to be okay. 

Then there was nothing. No light, no darkness… just eternity. He had no concept of time or form, free from all human care. There was no pain, no feeling. It had felt like slipping into a warm bath, but once the water overtook him it was finished. 

That was until a warm hand was placed on his cheek, which should be impossible. He had no form any longer, nothing that could be touched. His consciousness was supposed to be rejoining the greater whole, fading into nothing… 

“Dearest heart, bravest warrior. You have done more than your share. The greatest evil was enacted upon you - they asked you to give, and give, and give. And you gave, without hesitation…” A gentle, feminine voice spoke. The voice was so soothing, so calming, that while his soul was flooded with frustration - yes, he had given, so please let him rest! - he was ready to grant her a few moments before his mind completely faded from existence. 

“A life for a life… that was the bargain. You rescued her soul from the brink, and in doing so agreed to give up your own. The bargain cannot be broken. However… it can be changed,” the voice continued. He felt himself become more solidified, it was so similar to what he had felt before, when he had purposefully cheated death of its prize. He was teetering between two realms again, but this time was different… 

“The bargain can only be changed if you wish it, dear heart. The gauntlet is prepared, and it is your choice if you wish to face it, only you can take the first step… I will meet you again at the end.” 

The voice spoke and the presence faded, leaving him with only the smallest of tethers. It would be so easy to break the tether… to choose to fade into nothing and rest forever more… 

His hand reached out and he took hold of the tether, pulling himself along it to fight towards a glowing realm. He would see what change this bargain could undertake… 


	2. I - The Magician

_ “They call me the Seeker, I've been searching low and high. I won't find what I'm after till the day I die.” - The Who, “The Seeker”  _

The first place he came to was intimately familiar, but different all at once. The place was the same, the energy was different. 

The World that Never Was had always been a quiet place, the Nobodies who had once called it home were not creatures of loud noise, but it had always had an undercurrent of energy. The World that Never Was that he was familiar with had been alive, this version was a hollow echo. This caused his eyebrows to knit together in curiosity. 

He began to walk the familiar path up to the castle, finding no opposition in his wake. It seemed as if he was the only occupant of this once-familiar place, his footsteps echoing off the buildings. He looked around himself, blinking in confusion. 

Standing up to walk under his own power had been a novel feeling, he felt far too heavy, like his limbs weren’t his own and he was just borrowing the shape for convenience's sake. Which, once it was considered, was likely the truth. His previous shape had been sacrificed after all. 

“Why am I here?” He asked, breaking the silence. 

“That is the sort of question that one must answer for oneself,” a deep voice responded. He whirled around to see a tall man with silver hair and deep orange eyes dressed in a black leather coat. 

His first instinct was to fight, he settled into a stance that spoke of years of muscle memory and part of him expected a weapon to just appear in his hands before he blinked in confusion. Who was this man that caused him such anxiety? 

“Forgive me, I did not mean to startle you,” the silver haired man said, holding his hands out to his sides to show that he was unarmed and not about to attack. 

A name emerged from the fog of his memories as he relaxed into a neutral stance. “You look like Xemnas… why?” 

“Your memories chose the shape I wear, the shape that they associate with the lessons I teach,” Not-Xemnas replied. He tilted his head in curiosity. 

“Lessons? The Lady didn’t mention anything about lessons…” He replied. 

“But she must have spoken of the Gauntlet. I bring you the first challenge - The Challenge of Knowing,” Not-Xemnas said, motioning for him to follow. 

They walked deep into the castle until they came to a large balcony, from where they could see the large heart-shaped moon that hung in the sky. He stood next to Xemnas and stared up at the moon, humming lightly. 

“It’s hollow, fake… like everything else here,” He commented. Xemnas chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound that emanated from his chest. 

“It was never real, but rather an echo of the truth. A symbol used to inspire and to manipulate, to instill a false sense of hope, but it had a power all its own,” Xemnas said, looking up at the moon. 

“It was powerful, wasn’t it... I still don’t know what he was trying to achieve,” He said, crossing his arms and shifting his weight. 

“Symbols are all interconnected, they feed into one another. It was a poor attempt at sympathetic magic, to call upon true power,” Xemnas said. “But that is not the lesson I seek to teach.” 

Confusion flitted over his features as he looked at Xemnas once again. “And what lesson is that? You mentioned the Challenge of Knowing…” 

“Yes... the Challenge of Knowing. This man whose shape your mind gave me, he knew enough of his goals to establish an entire realm and to create an echo of one of the most powerful objects in existence. But do you know and understand your own goal?”

Wrinkling his brow, he stood at the railing that surrounded the balcony. Since his earliest days, his goal had been to protect his friends. He had fought for so long to defend them, to keep them safe… his sacrifice had been for one of his oldest and dearest friends after all. 

What was his goal now? 

“If anything… my goal remains the same. I want to protect that which I cherish the most,” He said, looking back to Xemnas. “But… I’m so tired…” 

“Then lay down and rest. No one is forcing you to give anything more than what you already have. You have the Right to Oblivion, after all,” Xemnas said.

The Right to Oblivion… was that where he had been? In Oblivion? Peacefully resting and ignorant to any trouble. However, another voice in the back of his head mentioned that he had been ignorant not just to the things that troubled him but also to the things that brought him joy. If he slipped back into Oblivion, he would never feel anything ever again. 

Did he want that? 

“But Oblivion means letting go of everything,” He said. 

“Yes, it does,” Xemnas confirmed, looking back up at the echo of Kingdom Hearts. 

“Then I don’t want it,” He said. As he spoke the words, he felt himself become more tethered to the world. It was as if his form was becoming more solidified, more embodied. 

“Then you have passed the Challenge of Knowing. If you understand your goal, then you can move forward. There will be many more challenges before you are presented with your final choice. Do not lose sight of the goal you have claimed,” Xemnas stated. 

He could once more see the tether that the Lady had left him, shining and leading towards a swirling portal. Without hesitation, he left Xemnas’s side to follow the tether. While he was not sure where it would lead, he now knew why he wanted to follow. 


End file.
